02207 - General Psychology

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Single cycle degree programme (LMCU) in School of Dentistry (cod. 8204)

Learning outcomes

Students will have specific knowledge of main cognitive functions (i.e. attention, memory, learning, thinking, language) and emotional processes involved in human information processing and behavior.
Moreover, students will know 1. the main features of stressful events and the psychophysiological reactions to the stressors; 2. The different types of social influence: 3. Prevention and empowerment strategies.

Course contents

LEARNING AND MEMORY: Associative learning (classical/pavlovian and instrumental/operant conditioning). Rewards and punishments. Motivation and learning. Non-associative learning. Sensory registers, short-term memory, long-term memory. The organization of information in memory. Episodic and semantic memory, declarative and procedural memories.

INTELLIGENCE: Contemporary theories of intelligence. The assessment of cognitive abilities. The intelligence tests. IQ and specific abilities. Mental retardation.

ATTENTION: Attentional systems: arousal and sustained attention; selective attention; executive functions.

EMOTION: Biological basis of emotion. Theories of emotion. Subcomponents of emotional responses. Primary emotions (basic) and secondary. Characteristics of basic emotions. Expression and emotion recognition.

STRESS : The stress response. Acute and chronic stress; physiological and psychological reactions to stress; coping strategies.

HEALTH COMMUNICATION: risk factors and prevention in the individual and collective health; The different types of social influence: verbal and non-verbal communication; Prevention and empowerment strategies.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Feldman R.S. (2008), PSICOLOGIA GENERALE. McGraw-Hill

Benedetti, F (2013). Placebo and the new physiology of the doctor-patient relationship. Physiol Rev, 93:1207-46 (alternatively: Benedetti, F (2012). L’effetto Placebo. Breve viaggio tra mente e corpo. Carocci Editore)

Teaching methods

Lectures. Classical psychology experiments will be simulated.
At the end of each lesson and topic, the specific references of recommended reading will be recalled.

Assessment methods

The test will be written, with open-ended questions (total time for the examination: one hour and half).

Teaching tools

The handouts of lectures slides will be provided by the teacher on AMS campus http://campus.cib.unibo.it/

Office hours

See the website of Maria Ida Gobbini